


Cause and Effect

by AstrayJay



Category: TF2 - Fandom, Team Fortress 2
Genre: Accidental Hatred, Jealousy, M/M, Medic is Adal, Medical School AU, Pyro is August, Teacher AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-02
Updated: 2019-08-02
Packaged: 2020-07-29 05:37:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20077033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AstrayJay/pseuds/AstrayJay
Summary: Adal is a little more than peeved after a long day at work, and thinking about losing his dream job to some unknown man wasn't making him feel any better. After winding up in a club, he meets a new stranger who seems to flip his world upside down without even trying. Though, perhaps Adal doesn't mind.





	Cause and Effect

It had been a long day. 

Adal was fed up, and in his haze of stress and annoyance, he found himself sitting at the bar in a club a close walking distance from his home. He didn’t really feel like drinking, but he ordered a beer anyways. Huffing, he recalled the days events.

Bland, boring, horrible. Just as it always was, working on Tuesdays. On Tuesdays, Adal had to lecture two seperate classes about his least favorite medical subject in the world; Pharmacology was always just so dull. The study of drug and medication usage and action was easy enough for him to understand when he had taken the class those many years ago, but repeating lectures about the same topics and re-explaining lessons to students who had missed them (or worse, hadn’t paid attention while he was giving them) was absolutely exhausting. 

Today alone he’d had three students approach him after the lecture and ask him to elaborate on the drug discovery cycle. It had been so hard to remain patient as he redrew the diagram and slowly explained it over again, advising them to take notes so they can review on their own time and come back with further questions next week. 

When his drink finally arrived, he only lightly sipped at it. He blearily looked around the room and could barely make out what looked to be a hockey game playing on the bar’s television. Another huff and he was back to thinking.

Tuesdays were awful, yes. But every other working day was an absolute delight! He was the full time biochemistry professor at a nearby Medical University. He genuinely enjoyed helping students understand the chemical processes found inside organic life. He had always had an affinity for the study of living things. 

Some would argue that pharmacology and biochemistry are very similar in nature, both involve chemical interactions with living organisms and frequently overlap. However, for Adal, pharmacology was simply a subsection of biochemistry, and trying to fit what he felt was a subsection into an entire year long class was absolutely horrendous. 

Doing so made him wish he could teach pathology. Diagnostics and disease studies had always been his favorite work while he was a physician. Biochemistry was a fun topic to tutor, but he had always felt that pathology had been his calling. He had actually originally applied to be the full-time pathology professor, and it seemed the job was his, until another applicant had shown up with more experience in the field. No way could the University deny a man who had been a forensic pathologist for more than a decade a job as their pathology professor. The man had clearly done well at his previous job, as his recommendations were positively glowing.

So he had heard. Of course, Adal’s only opinion of the mystery professor was that said man was a bastard for taking the job he had wanted.  
He was still incredibly grateful for the biochemistry position given to him by the same University, but his resentment of the pathology professor still stood strong. He was grateful he had never met him, and was sure he would only feel worse if he did.

The sound of cheering from across the room brought him out of his thoughts. Damn hockey game, ruining his peaceful thinking and secret loathing of his rival. 

When the winning team scored yet another goal, and the men in the corner with their eyes glued to the screen cheered once more, Adal heard the sharp bang of the bottom of a cup hitting the wooden tabletop come from the left of him. Approximately three seats away from him, there was a boy, who was definitely _ not _ having a good time. His green hoodie matched that of the losing team, and Adal couldn’t help but smile slightly at the defeated look in the boy’s baby blue eyes. 

Adal took a moment to study the boy a bit closer, still finding his expression somewhat amusing. He had to admire him, though. He was very attractive. His ginger hair was strikingly bright against his unusually natural tan, and though his lips fell into a pout, and his eyes narrowed as time started to run out for his team, he was still, undoubtedly, very attractive. 

When time finally ran out, he watched as the boy groaned, and put his head to the tabletop for a moment. He waved the bartender over as he picked his head up, and ordered another drink, most likely to drown his sorrows. 

The bartender passed him his new fruity alcoholic beverage, and he took a slow sip. He looked to his right, and locked eyes with Adal, who didn’t dare to look away at the now smiling boy who was quickly standing up and taking another slow sip of his drink.

He felt his heart pick up its pace and his nerves kick in when the boy moved into the seat directly to his left, and even scooted himself a little bit closer. 

The boy hummed slightly, getting him Adal’s full attention. “You know, if you’re going to keep looking at me like that, you’d better know CPR. You’re going to take my breath away.” The boy laughs at his own joke, and Adal almost rolls his eyes. However, he can’t stop the small smile from slowly appearing on his face at the overly cheesy pickup line.

  
“I’m August, by the way.” He offered his hand towards Adal, who hesitantly took it into his own and gave it a firm shake.

“Adal.”

“Well, Adal. It’s very nice to meet you.” He downs the rest of his drink, turns to face Adal entirely, and rests his chin in his hand and his arm on the tabletop, “Are you from around here?”

“Mostly.”

August gives a short laugh, “What does that mean?”

Adal only responds with a soft smile, and takes another swig of his beer. The silence among them grows, and Adal is almost about to speak up and explain, despite the complete disregard of the social que beforehand, but August seems to beat him to it.

“What do you do for work, Adal?” He gives a curious hum at the end of his question, “You seem a bit.. Stressed.”

“Stressed?”

August shifts away slightly, as if afraid he’d said the wrong thing, “Y-Yes. Yes, there’s obvious tension in your shoulders.” He stops, then seems to contemplate speaking once more. “So.. Work?”

Adal shakes his head slightly at the peculiar stranger, but he obliges. “I _was_ a physician for a time. But that quickly became boring, so I decided to switch to teaching instead.”

At this information, August seems elated. He squirms a little in his seat, clasps his hands together in his lap, and grins. “Oh, yay! Another man of science! Oh, that’s fantastic! Most guys around here don’t work in such.. intellectually grueling fields. Mostly retail workers.”

“Is there something wrong with being a retail worker?” Adal raised his brow, and took yet another sip from his drink.

“No, there’s nothing wrong with it. I just think it’ll be fun trying to seduce a man, who most likely has the same amount of medical knowledge that I do, into making stupid decisions.”

Adal is quick to snort, “_This_ is seducing?”

“Is it working?” The other boy sounded all too hopeful. 

Slowly turning his head away from August, Adal laughed. He looked back, a more curious look upon his face. “Stupid decisions?”

  
August’s grin grows wider, “I would not object to, say, being taken to a strange man’s home,” he gestures towards Adal, “and possibly..” He stares into his eyes, as if expecting to pass on a wordless message.

  
However genius Adal was in the medical field did not translate at all into this situation. All he could do was give August a confused look, his brows furrowing and lips falling into a soft frown.

  
August seemed to understand his message was not received, so his grin dropped into a smile. He put his hand to Adal’s shoulder, and gently trailed it down his arm, continuing his previous attempt with, “And possibly.. You know..” When his fingers reached Adal’s wrist, his soft tracing came to a halt, “Doing something _special_.” It came out as more of a suggestion than a statement.

  
“Oh.” Adal doesn’t mean to say it, but it just seems to slip out. He finds August’s smile gone, replaced with a small and disappointed frown, and is quick to say, “Oh that’d be, um.. Great.” He's just as quick to finish his drink.

  
“Really? Awesome!” He grabs Adal’s hand, and letting a smirk cross his lips, he adds, “This’ll be one for the history books.”


End file.
